Best pub food under £15 in Manchester

Pub food inflation in Manchester has been brutal over the last three years. A burger that was £11 in 2022 is now £15.50; a pie that was £13 is now £17. The sub-£15 main is no longer a low bar - it's a meaningful threshold that separates community boozers and value-focused chains from the gastropub end of the market.

The reliable categories under £15 are: any Wetherspoons main (£6–£10), most pies at traditional pubs (£11–£14), most pizzas at NQ pizza-and-pints places (£10–£13), and the lunch-only menus at gastropubs that charge £18+ for the same dishes at dinner. Burgers and steaks have largely escaped - anything cooked from raw protein at a sit-down pub is now £16+ almost universally.

Some specific deals worth knowing: The Bay Horse Tavern on Thomas Street does a £12 weekday steak frites Mon–Wed. Big Hands on Oxford Road does a £9 burger-and-pint combo. Most Sam Smith's pubs in central Manchester (Sinclair's, Old Wellington, Crown & Anchor) keep all mains under £12 because the brewery sets prices nationally - it's one of the few remaining bargains in the city centre.

If you're eating with a group, the move is to order a couple of bar snacks and a main rather than two starters and a main - the snack-board format at most NQ pubs gives you better food per pound than a sit-down starter. Scotch eggs, pork pies and chip butties have come back hard at the budget end of the market and most of them are genuinely good.